Chapter 1

Persephone’s POV

I looked at my closet and felt that I was staring at a model’s closet who was mostly dressed in Chanel and YSL and Dior and Armani, not to mention Gucci and Prada. There wasn’t even a dearth of the names of the new fashion hubs who were just rising in fame in the Milan and Paris. My mother had always hated the way I wanted to wear t-shirts and jeans and hoodies and cut-offs. She said that it made me seem like a hobo. I had argued that it made me look like a cute hobo, nonetheless, which had earned me too much glare.

But she shut up for a while when I had shown her that the top K-pop stars were wearing the same things that I was and I was relieved for a few days. There was no freedom for me in this house, I never had. I had never gone to school, I never had any friends except the ones that Mother had chosen for me. And most of them were stupid vapid bitches and imbeciles so I got rid of them as soon as possible. I had tutors who home-schooled me and the only reason that I had survived was because of their kindness.

But tonight, I had to be perfect. Mother had made it clear that I had to be perfect, and if I would wear something like what I usually wore at home, she would disown me and then bury be alive in the family crypt, of that I had no doubt.

There was a knock on the door and before I could even say anything, my best friend, Nyra came in and closed the door behind her and locked it. She was the only one friend I had, and honestly, I did not need any more.

I raised my brows and cocked my head at her.

“That seemed like an over-kill!” I said as I finally decided on a baby blue dress which came to my knees and had flowers on one shoulder and a strap on the other. It had beads over the breast portion and it made me look cute. I took out a soft blue bow as well, to tie my hair with it.

“I don’t think you should go downstairs to that dinner, Pers,” said Nyra as I scoffed.

“Yeah! And get murdered by my mother. I doubt it will be called anything other than honour killing, since this will be tarnishing my honour when she has been trying to protect me for all this time since my birth,” I said on a monotone as I begun undressing inside my closet. I was pushing it as it was and now I would not be deterred from my course of action just because my best friend was saying so.

“She is going to mate you off with a werewolf, Pers. Your aunt has brought in the match, they have found out somehow that this is the one way to bring out the powers of the witch! Do you really wish to be mated with someone for a lifetime whom you have never even seen?” she whisper barked at me and I came out of the closet in my lingerie. Not being able to believe what I was hearing. Nyra was staring at me and she did not even blink an eye lid at the fact that I was half-naked. After all, why would she? We had been doing this, dressing each other since we were four years old.

“That can’t be possible! She wouldn’t do this!” I gasped as I could feel the tear threatening to fall down my eyes. I choked down the lump at the back of my throat.

Nyra did not say anything and just stared at me with a sad smile. She and I both knew that, my mother would do anything to consolidate her power in the coven. And if that meant pawning me off to someone where I could grow in my powers then that might be it so that she could prove how powerful her bloodline is, then they would do it. But I would not cry. Not for her, she only considered me her pawn and tonight, well, this was the breaking point I supposed.

“You have to run,” she said with a tone of finality, as I finished dressing. I was silent for a spell as I stared at myself and found that I was looking quite beautiful. My originally platinum blonde hair fell down in natural curls and my eyes which were the light glacial blue only improved my allure along with my high cheekbones. I looked nothing like my mother who was a raven haired queen with looks that would put Morticia Addams to shame however in a family of witches, you never knew which gene was going to surface up so no one questioned my looks either.

“Yeah! Probably but I have to go and find out what has she been planning and I am sure she will surprise me with some kind of announcement. You pack a bag for me, Nyra. You know what all to put in, right?”

Nyra nodded. The only person apart from Grandmaman, whom I trusted more than life itself. I put on a little make up and a little blush with a soft nude pink lipstick. I put in a slight blush on my cheekbones and touch of highlighter on the bridge of my nose and some on my collar bones. I finally looked at myself.

This was the daughter that she had always wished for, but I was not this person. But tonight, for my own sake I needed to do this.

I walked down the stairs knowing very well that the party would be in full swing. I could see that there were several of the werewolf families in presence here along with a few other covens as well. Grandmaman was nowhere to be seen and I made a beeline for my Mother who took one look at me and gave an appreciative nod. Then she caught hold of my hand and air-kissed me in the manner that French people do and I had no choice but to accept that.

“Mrs. Fynn, you must meet my daughter, Persephone. She has been eagerly waiting all day to meet all of you,” she said as I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes. And so it started. After that I lost count of how many people had I met and how many boys and men had stared at me and ogled at me like I was a piece of meat and finally after an hour Grandmaman arrived from the kitchen door and I waved at her.

She waved me back but she did a double take at whatever was going on and beckoned me. I was being accosted by one of the Alpha heirs who had considered that I would be perfect for his pack.

“Do you know how many hotels we have? We have a chain of luxury hotels all over the continent and we are planning to take our business overseas now,” he said as he held up the glass to clink with mine and I gushed.

“Oh really! How amazing…are you the one who will be taking care of everything by yourself?” I asked as I found that something was going on between Mother and Grandmaman and I wasn’t even listening to anything or anyone and I said,” Excuse me, please I think my mother needs me.”

I walked in the direction where both the women were standing when all of a sudden they stopped bickering and assumed a normal stance and I drawled,” Ladies, that is not fooling anyone. Least of all me.”

“Is that how you talk to your mother?” my mother asked as glared at me and I smiled at her with all my teeth showing and she rared back a bit at this uncharacteristic behaviour.

“Let us all go back to the kitchen, and then we can discuss why you have brought in the werewolf families so that I can choose one of them to mate with,” I said with a smile and both of them had their eyes widened like saucers and they did not say another word until we were in the family kitchen which also served as the apothecary and as my mother locked the door and started putting on a silencing spell on the door and the walls my Grandmaman gestured me with her eyes to a small bag in the upper hand corner of the kitchen. It looked like a gift bag but I knew what she meant. It was packed with all the essentials that I would need. She had prepared a getaway bag for me the moment that she had come to know about my mother’s insane plans.

“How did you know that?” she asked me without ay preamble and I turned towards my Mother. Lenore Celeste Musqiat, the next head of the Light witch coven and a member of the Board of Supernaturals.

“Most of the mothers are showing me off to their sons and the sons who are not dumb are trying to show off how much money or power they have. I mean, really mother it is not rocket science. I know that you wished me to get married but with wolves? What happened to marrying a nice human? Like father is…” I stopped speaking as she hissed at me.

“You could have married a nice unsuspecting full human like your father had you gained your powers until now but you haven’t. So I have no other choice than to hobnob with these filthy animals!”

“And you want me to mate with these filthy animals?” I asked her with an equally disgusted look on my face.

“Of course not, baby girl…it is not going to be forever. I will just make them sign a blood bond to let you go after a year. What did you think? I was going to hand over my only heir off to these animals forever?” she laughed and I gawked her. This woman was really diabolical genius and I sighed.

“And they won’ see through your plan?” Grandmaman asked and my mother rolled her eyes.

“You really think that I would be that stupid? Come on, Mother, a lot of things are riding on this dinner to go well and I don’t need anyone of you crashing water on my plans!” she hissed and my Grandmaman growled low in her throat in warning.

“Don’t you dare speak to your mother like I am your fucking minion, Lenore. I can still cast you out from the coven in an instant and I am pretty certain you do not wish for that to happen.”

“Come on. Let’s just get over this dinner with and then we can discuss the ins and outs that is necessary,” Mother waved a hand and the silencing spell was gone and we went out of the room but Grandmaman held my hand and squeezed it and nodded.

Yeah! That’s when I knew I had to run tonight for sure.